Add a Third Time-Zone to your Outlook Calendar

If you work in a multinational organisation and work across time zones then the latest build of Outlook for Windows (Version 1805 (Build 9330.2087)) has something that will make your life a little easier:

If you don’t work in a multinational world this probably sounds like a “so what”, but in my world this is excellent. I’m rarely in meetings with people from just one time-zone, it’s much more normal to be on a call with people from Europe, the US and India. This update allows me to see everyone’s time in the same view in my calendar.

You update the time zones via the calendar options:

Add a label, pick a time-zone.

These will then appear in your calendar view with the labels defined:

It’s as simple as that, once you’ve got the update.

This time-zone visibility isn’t yet in the scheduling assistant when creating an appointment which would be great.

Knowing what time people are in isn’t just about scheduling though, people behave differently dependent upon the time of day. The person in India who has already done a long day’s work is going to respond differently to the American who hasn’t yet had enough caffeine. The dynamics of the meeting are different for the participants – one wants to get off the phone and finish their day, the other is just getting started and happy to chat. Quite often the European, in the middle, is wondering when they can get some lunch.